Playing violent video games doesn't make you aggressive, study finds

Research deflates myths proposing a link between anti-social behaviour with violent video games

After years of drawing a connection between violent video games and aggression, a groundbreaking study suggests that playing video games that are violent in nature do not have any effect on an individual’s capacity to be ferocious, claims a new study.

A thorough examination of brain scans and psychological questionnaires enabled scientists to calculate link between aggression and empathy, which showed no difference between those who played videos games and those who did not.



The research deflates earlier studies and myths proposing crimes and anti-social behaviour to be proportionate to video games that promote violence. Earlier in 2015, a British politician blamed Grand Theft Auto for rising gun violence.

The study, conducted by Hannover Medical School, involved a comparative analysis between gamers who played for a minimum two hours a day in the last four years and a controlled group of subjects who did not play as often. Since the research focused on long-term effects of aggressive games, scientists waited a few hours before starting tests that evaluated ability to empathise and levels of aggression through psychological questionnaires, while brain scans helped highlight neurological symptoms.



The researchers found no evidence of a long-term effect through the psychological testing, the findings were backed by the MRI scans.

According the the lead researcher on the case, Dr Gregor Szycik, the study was initiated because of the increasing amount of people seeking help for video game addiction

"We hope that the study will encourage other research groups to focus their attention on the possible long-term effects of video games on human behaviour," said Dr Szycik.

This article originally appeared on the Telegraph.